I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Little Girl Taken by Wendy Dranfield Also by this author: Shadow Falls, Cry for Help, The Birthday Party, Gone to Her Grave
Series: Detective Madison Harper #3
Also in this series: Shadow Falls, Cry for Help, Gone to Her Grave, Catch Her Death
Published by Bookouture on 29th July 2021
Genres: Crime, Suspense, Thriller
Pages: 379
Format: eARC
Source: from Netgalley
Goodreads
Amazon Kindle
Rain rattles through the trees as she leans into the car, careful not to touch anything. Two pretty blue eyes stare back through the dark, wide with relief, or maybe fear. A baby girl, wrapped up in a pink snowsuit, reaches out a tiny hand. Her mother is nowhere to be found…
An abandoned baby is the last thing Detective Madison Harper expects to find as she drives to her first day back at work since the case that ripped her life apart. But as she cradles the shivering child close, all her instincts tell her there’s something more sinister at play. Then she finds a lone sneaker down a muddy trail nearby, the laces spattered with blood…
In a town as small as Lost Creek, Colorado, the baby and the shoe are quickly identified as belonging to Kacie Larson, a waitress at the local diner who quietly stashed away her tips to make a better life for her daughter. A mother herself, Madison can’t believe that Kacie would just abandon her child, but she also can’t convince her new team. Not for the first time, Madison feels she must go it alone to get the job done.
But when a body is pulled from a nearby lake, and it’s not Kacie, the case takes an agonizing turn. Is this missing mother really who she says she is? Is there a chance she’s still alive? Madison barely has time to think before the sweet little girl she rescued is snatched on a crowded street. Gone, in the blink of an eye.
To break this case and earn her place back on the force, Madison must learn to trust her team, and herself again—and fast. If she doesn’t find this twisted individual in time, a little girl could die…
A pulse-pounding, absolutely gripping and totally addictive page-turner that will have you racing through the pages and reeling at the twists. Perfect for fans of Melinda Leigh, Lisa Regan and Kendra Elliot, you’ll be sleeping with the lights on!
Thank you to Bookouture for my copy of this book via netgalley and for letting me take part in this tour. This is the third book in this series but could be read as a standalone. I absolutely LOVED the first two books in this series and I have been eagerly waiting for this book since I finished them.
I don’t know how Wendy does it. This book is better than the first two and as I said I loved those. This book had 2 stories. The main story of the missing girl Kacie and the continued story of Nate and Father Conner.
Kacie’s story is an extremely sad and engrossing one. This poor girl has been through so much. I felt so much sympathy for her. I just wanted to mother her. She has been let down time and time again. The case kept me on edge until the very end. There were some good twists with this one which I very nearly got but not quite. Wendy did an excellent job of keeping you hooked.
The case of Nate and Father Conner was also very interesting. This story has been ongoing through the series but there is enough information given for you to be invested in this storyline. I was very happy with how this played out and think that the outcome was the right one.
I was addicted to this book from page 1 and I cannot wait to see what Maddison has in store in the next book!
About Wendy Dranfield
Wendy is a former coroner’s assistant turned crime writer who lives in the UK with her husband and 3 cats.
As well as her two crime series and the YA crime novel – The Girl Who Died – Wendy has several short stories published in UK and US anthologies. She has also been shortlisted and longlisted for various competitions, including the Mslexia Novel Competition
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@bookouture What a fab review. Thanks so much, Emma! 🥰📚🚔
Thank you so much! I’m so glad you love this series. xx
@WendyDranfield Thank you!